Names
by tayyyisgayyy
Summary: Mari Takahashi was afraid of falling in love. / Soulmate AU prompt
1. Chapter 1

**Here it is! My new story!**

 **So I got the idea for this soulmate AU from some tumblr post somewhere, but I immediately fell in love and couldn't wait to put my own twist on this!  
I know it's not the most original, but I loved this AU so much, I couldn't resist. **

**Anyway, here it is, enjoy!**

Mari Takahashi was afraid of falling in love.

She was afraid of being in a relationship, she was afraid of someone loving her.

Those tween novels about love and heartbreak had ruined it for her.

And that's why she hated the _Matt Sohinki_ written on her wrist.

She'd always wear long-sleeved shirts or hoodies for fear that she would run into this _Matt Sohinki_ guy. She didn't want anything to do with romance. She didn't want to run into _Matt Sohinki_ and find out that her name wasn't on his wrist. She didn't want to meet him and find out he was a jerk, or he didn't like her, or she didn't like him. Their society had taught them to find their soulmate or be an outcast, but Mari didn't care.

Love came with too many emotions, too much heartbreak, too much room for failure.

That was too much for her to handle.

Every day, she would look at the name on her wrist and cringe. She was avoiding meeting new people for fear that one of them would be _Matt Sohinki_.

Until one day, it happened.

It started out like any other day; she reluctantly woke up, put on clothes, being sure to cover her wrist, ate something, brushed her teeth, left.

Then, she missed the bus and had to walk in the rain.

To make matters worse, the door of the small coffee shop she worked at was locked, so she had to wait, teeth chattering, for her boss to come open the door. It was the type of day that she knew was going to be bad.

She walked into the shop, knocking over one of their novelty mugs, and breaking it. Ten dollars out of her paycheck.

In her first shift, someone spilled coffee all over one of the tables.

Guess who had to clean it up.

On her break, she stepped in gum and spent ten minutes trying to scrape it off, but to no avail.

She just wanted that day to be over.

She walked in after her first break, sighing.

"What's up with you?" asked her fellow barista and best friend, Olivia. She had already found her soulmate.

"Bad day. No luck." replied Mari, stepping up to the counter to take her first order.

"Hi, I'll just have a medium coffee, two cream two sugar." said a man.

Mari scribbled that down in her notebook. "Your name and last initial, sir?"

"Anthony P." Mari turned away to start making his coffee, when she heard a different voice.

"Hey, I'm sorry, Anthony Padilla?" She turned around to see a different man holding his wrist out to him, _Anthony Padilla_ written across it. Anthony pulled back his sleeve to reveal a name, _Ian Hecox_. "That's me."

The two men looked at each other for a moment, disbelief in their eyes. They then smiled and embraced each other. Everyone else in the cafe clapped as the two men smiled and laughed, holding hands.

Mari turned away, slightly disappointed. She had to say, she was jealous of them. Of the happiness in their eyes, of their newfound sense of completion.

But Mari knew that it wouldn't be that great once she found her so-called "soulmate".

Still, she couldn't help but daydream, as a child dreams about their wedding day. There was no guarantee it was going to happen, there was no guarantee it would be a joyous occasion, but the possibility that it could be was enough to motivate Mari to maybe give it a shot. What was the worst that could happen?

Well, besides being horribly disappointed for the rest of her life.

She smiled to herself. Maybe she should give it a chance. If it's meant to happen, it'll happen.

She completed the coffee order and gave it to the man, Anthony, who was holding hands and chatting with his newfound soulmate.

"Mari!" Mari turned around as she heard her boss calling her. She walked toward him.

"We got a new recruit. I'm choosing you to show him the ropes." Mari looked at the man behind him. The man stepped forward and they shook hands.

"Hi. I'm Mari. Mari Takahashi."

The man smiled at her. "I'm Matt Sohinki."

 **Ooo cliffhangers ;)**

 **Anyway, this one'll probably be shorter, maybe five chapters or so. I just really love these soulmate AUs and couldn't resist doing one for myself.**

 **I'll probably get these out closer together, because when I post this I'll probably already have three chapters written.**

 **I can tell writing this is gonna be fun.**

 **Alright, I'm gonna go now. Stay tuned for the rest of this story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey I'm back!**

 **So I've finally decided on an update schedule; from now on I'll at least** _ **try**_ **to get chapters out every week(end). I don't have much school this month (No School November is in full swing!) so I might get a lot of updates out, who knows?**

 **I actually might get this story done by this month, I'm thinking maybe only 6 or 7 chapters, then I'll start my next thing.**

 **Okay I'm blabbering, here's chapter 2!**

Mari blinked in disbelief, the world spinning around her.

 _Matt Sohinki_.

It was him. This was her soulmate.

She didn't feel so good.

Suddenly, the idea of "giving it a shot" didn't feel so good after all. It wasn't him; she just kept thinking, _this is it. This is my soulmate. This is the moment I'll remember for the rest of my life, the one I'll tell my kids about._ Kids. Marriage. A relationship. That all had to happen now. This is the one. The only one. It was all moving too fast. What about him? Did he recognize her name? What if he-

"Miss?" Mari was snapped out of her daze by the guy, _Matt_ , speaking.

"Y-yeah. Hi. I'm sorry I'm really… tired. I'm tired." She said, choking on every word. She felt nauseous.

"Come on. I'll… I'll go show you the ropes, I guess." _Matt_ followed behind her, a look of obvious confusion on his face.

"Hi! Are you the new guy?" Olivia asked, walking up to him and shaking his hand. "I'm Olivia Sui."

"Matt Sohinki." Olivia's face fell as she looked at Mari, and then her wrist. Mari nodded at her, an _I know_ movement.

"Yeah. Welcome." Olivia walked away quickly as the confusion on _Matt_ 's face grew even more apparent.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, no. Nothing's… nothing's wrong. We just, uh, haven't had a new guy here in a while, so it's… it's different." _Matt_ shrugged and looked at Mari, sort of an invitation for her to continue with showing him around.

After about a half hour of her showing him around, he was ready to start his first order. She left him to take care of it as she walked quickly away, grabbing Olivia's wrist and pulling her into the staff bathroom.

"Olivia! That's _him_!"

"I know!"

"What should I do? Should I tell him? Should I-" Mari collapsed on the floor, shaking. The "give it a shot" mindset she had thirty minutes ago was gone, replaced by fear and anxiety.

But, he seemed like a nice guy. If they were actually meant to be, she wouldn't complain about him. Those thoughts eased her conscience a bit.

Then, there was the thought that he didn't recognize her name. She didn't see his face change, he didn't even blink when he heard her name.

Maybe he's just scared. Like she is.

Mari shook her head, trying to clear away the many conflicting thoughts within her head.

"Mari? Mari, it's okay. Everything's gonna be fine."

Mari shook her head, fully sobbing now. "He probably doesn't have my name. Which means I'm a freak without a soulmate. I don't belong in society. I don't-"

"How do you know? How do you know he doesn't have your name?"

"I just do-"

"No. You're not going to throw away this chance just because you have a 'feeling'. You're going to show him your wrist by the end of this week. Okay?"

"But-"  
Olivia sighed, crouching down to put her hand on Mari's back. "You won't know until you try. So what if your name isn't on his wrist? You've never cared about having a soulmate anyway. It's Monday. By Friday night, you're going to tell him. I don't care when, but please. I can't stand seeing you like this any longer."

Mari nodded, not speaking. She had stopped crying a few minutes ago, so tears weren't wet on her face. She wiped her eyes and stood up, walking out of the bathroom.

She decided that maybe she would try to be nice to _Matt_ , try to get to know him better. She would tell him on Friday. She smiled at him. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard.

 **That's it for this chapter! :)**

 **Thank you so much for the positive reviews on this, I wasn't even sure anyone was gonna read it.**

 **I'm always so grateful for you guys, because I get to share my stories with people who will actually read them :P**

 **So, thanks for reading this!**

 **See you soon! 3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here I am!**

 **I'm not gonna blabber on before this chapter (for once) but I will just say one thing;**

 **I have other stories on my Wattpad account, TayTayTay_Smosh.**

 **I put my Ianthony stories on there, and my stories about NSP / Game Grumps (if any of you watch that).**

 **Alright, enough shameless promo, here's chapter 3! :)**

 _Tuesday. I'll tell him in four days._

That thought circulated in Mari's head every time she looked at _Matt_. It was hard trying to be nice to him and act like nothing was wrong. She was filled with an anxiety so strong it prevented her from being friendly.

She tried, but she knew _Matt_ was suspicious of her.

During their break, she tried to talk to him.

"Hey." she said, plopping down next to him on the leather chair. _So far, so good._

"Hi."

"So, uh, I haven't really gotten to know you. Uh, what do you like to do?" _'What do you like to do?' Mari, this isn't a job interview! Come on!_

"Well, I like playing video games." This made Mari smile.

"Really? So do I. I'm not very good, but I do."

"Cool." _Matt_ smiled and looked at her. _Hey, he's not that bad looking…_ "I have a bunch of games at my place if you wanna come over sometime."

Mari genuinely smiled at him, considering an actual friendship. "I'd like that."

The timer on her phone went off, signaling the end of their break. They both stood up, getting ready to get back to work, when _Matt_ spoke.

"Hey, could I get your number?"

Mari paused. _I was trying to get friendly with him anyway, right?_

"Sure." Mari recited her number as _Matt_ typed it into his phone. They exchanged quick smiles as they walked to their respective sides behind the counter.

"Look at you two, getting cozy over there." Olivia teased as Mari walked back.

"Shut up." Mari said, blushing and cracking a tiny smile.

 _ **-later-**_

 __Mari took her attention away from the TV and looked at her phone as it buzzed.

 _ **213-291-4848:**_ _Hey Mari, it's Matt._

Mari chuckled to herself.

 _ **Mari:**_ _Hey._

She put _Matt_ 's contact into her phone.

 _ **Matt:**_ _So, you wanna hang out after work tomorrow? I just got some new games on my computer._

 _ **Mari:**_ _Sure, sounds good. You'll take me to your place after work?_

 _ **Matt:**_ _Yeah._

 _ **Mari:**_ _Great! Can't wait!_ __

 _ **Matt:**_ _:)_

Mari smiled to herself. _I'm making a friend. I'm getting to know him. Maybe this won't be so bad after all._

The next day, she got to work, smiling at _Matt_. He smiled back, making her heart flutter. Olivia quizzically raised an eyebrow at her.

"What's up with you two?" she asked when _Matt_ had gone out of earshot.

"Nothing. I'm just going to his place after work." Mari said, smirking.

Olivia gasped, grinned, and playfully hit her arm wth a drying rag. "Mari! So, like a date? _At his place?_ "

"Well, I mean, probably not like a _date-date_ , but…"

Olivia squeaked. "Look at you! I feel like a proud mother. And hey, even if you aren't soulmates, you could at least get _something_ out of him."

"Shut up." Mari said, blushing. Just what she needed, an overly-excited Olivia buzzing around her.

However, she couldn't deny she was excited and almost as giddy as Olivia, even if she wouldn't show it.

Once the timer went off signaling the end of her and _Matt_ 's shift, she walked outside with him coming after.

He smiled at her. "Ready to go?"

Mari chuckled as she saw Olivia giving her a thumbs-up through the window. "Yeah." She climbed into _Matt_ 's car, _Matt_ climbing in shortly after.

"Uh, you wanna listen to music?" he asked. Mari's stomach churned at the awkwardness of the situation.

"Yeah."

"What do you like to listen to?"

Mari shrugged. "Whatever."

Matt turned on Bluetooth on his phone, then a few seconds later, a song by Mari's favorite band came on.

She grinned. "How did you know I love this band?"  
"Really? They're my favorite!"

"Mine too!" _Alright, this isn't so awkward now._

The two sang along, swaying their heads from side to side. This continued for a few more minutes until they got to his apartment building, a nice building that looked like it belonged in the suburbs.

Mari got out of the car, letting _Matt_ lead her inside. They went up a few flights of stairs before entering Matt's apartment.

Mari looked at it and gasped.

 _Oh my god._

 **Cliffhangers ;) (im so sorry)**

 **Aaaanyway, that's all!**

 **Thanks again for the positive reviews, I'm really glad you guys are liking this. I'm enjoying writing it.**

 **Goodbye and see y'all next week!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yo I'm back but I know I left y'all off with a cliffhanger so**

 _Oh my god._

Mari looked around, not believing what she was seeing.

 _But wait, is it really? It looks too different… I must be imagining things._

"Is… is something wrong?"

"...No. I just... For some reason I feel like I've been here before." she said, nervously chuckling.

"Deja vu?"

"Probably. Come give me the tour, what are you waiting for?"

 _Matt_ smiled, and began showing her around the house. _I swear, the resemblance is uncanny…_

Their tour ended in the kitchen, when _Matt_ grabbed a bag of pretzels from the top of the refrigerator and gave it to Mari. She opened it and started eating without hesitation.

They went back in the living room, where _Matt_ sat at a desk and powered up his computer.

"Sick setup." Mari said, looking at it how a small child would look at a toy display.

"Thanks."

"What's the mic and camera for?"

 _Matt_ visibly blushed. "Sometimes I do streams on Twitch. I only get, like, 50 viewers tops, but it's nice to know I'm not completely alone."

"Hey, I have Twitch! What's your name?" she said, pulling out her phone.

"Sohinki." he said shyly.

She tapped something on her phone, then turned it off and put it away. "Followed."  
 _Matt_ couldn't stop blushing.

"So, what games do you like?"

"Well, I've been really into Dead by Daylight recently."

"I love DBD!"

"You wanna play together?"

"Sure." Mari rolled her chair next to _Matt_ 's, abandoning her bag of pretzels.

They played peacefully for a bit until they realized the killer was right behind them in the middle of the game. The jumpscare caused them to flinch, their hands touching. They both blushed at the rush of electricity and spark that came from that touch.

They played in silence for the rest of the game, then _Matt_ said "Uh, maybe we should eat something?"

Mari nodded and they both went to the kitchn, where _Matt_ picked up his phone and dialed the number to the nearby pizza place.

"What do you want?" he asked, as the phone was still ringing.

"Hawaiian."

"Hi. Yeah, I'll have a large pizza, half cheese and half hawaiian. Delivery, please. _Matt_. 1600 Campus Rd."

 _That address._

It all came back to her now.

 _Matt_ said a few more things and hung up the phone, turning around to see a pale Mari.

"What's up?" he asked, noticing the shock on her face.

"That address…"

"Yeah?"

"This was my childhood home. I grew up here. I didn't recognize the outside because it was so long ago... but the address…

"Really? That's…" Matt cut off suddenly, turning pale as well. The look of realization dawned on his face. However, Mari was too shocked herself to notice.

"When did you move in here?"

"My parents and I moved in here when I was a kid, then they left because my dad got a job offer somewhere else. By then I was 18, and I didn't want to leave, so I just stayed here."  
"How old were you when you moved in?" Mari asked, remembering something.

"Maybe 7 or 8. Why?

"And you're my age?" _Matt_ nodded. Mari did some quick math in her head, then gasped. "So that means…"

She ran down the hall into the first door on the left; _Matt_ 's room. He followed quickly behind.

"This was my old room. Hey, when you moved in here, was there a…"

"A teddy bear?"

Mari looked at him, eyes wide, as he pulled out a small brown teddy bear.

"Kuma!" Mari gasped, taking it and squeezing it.

"There was also this note." Mari took the little piece of paper from him.

 _Dear person,_

 _Please take care of this house and this bear. His name is Kuma._

 _-Mari Takahashi_

Tears began to form in Mari's eyes as she remembered a younger version of her writing this note. She began to remember, feeling the memories come back into her head.

"Why did you keep him? And this note? After all these years… why didn't you throw them away?"

 _Matt_ sighed. "Because _Mari Takahashi_ is the name written on my wrist."

 **Wink wonk**

 **Anyway that's it and I miiiight be able to get the next chapter out soon because thanksgiving break waddup**

 **The next chapter will proably an epilogue / clearing things up (im bad at explaining things just stay with me)**

 **Alright I'm gonna go now, but stay tuned for**

 **the final chapter (do do do doo)(to the tune of the final countdown)(im sorry)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Last chapter feels yo**

"W- what?"

" _Mari Takahashi_ is the name written on my wrist." He pulled back his sleeve, revealing the name written across his wrist.

Mari looked in disbelief for a moment, then responded by revealing the _Matt Sohinki_ written on her own wrist.

The two looked at each other and cracked tiny smiles of relief. "Why didn't you tell me?" Mari asked. "I told you my name-"

"I didn't hear you. I thought you said something else. Why didn't you tell me? You knew my name."

"I- I was scared. I have always been scared of meeting this _Matt Sohinki_ guy because maybe we wouldn't like each other, or he would have a different name on his wrist or something… but then I met him. And I got to know him, and I really really liked him. But I was still scared, y'know? I was still scared he wouldn't like me that way, or he'd have a different name on his wrist."

"And now that you know he does?"

Mari grinned. "I've never been happier."

She stepped forward and their lips connected, shyly at first but grew more passionate as Matt put his arms on her lower back and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Mari suddenly knew what all the hype was about. She felt whole. She felt as if a missing piece of her life had been found after years of searching, and as she felt the piece slide into place, she smiled into the kiss.

She pulled away, keeping their noses together. "I always thought meeting my soulmate would be a horrible experience. I'm glad it was you, because you made it better."

 _ **-epilogue-**_

 __"Hey babe, you ready to stream?" asked Matt, putting his arm around her waist.

"Of course." Mari smiled as they kissed.

They had found a joint profession they could do together; during the day, they both worked for a gaming channel on YouTube with a few other guys. At night, they wound down with a nightly Twitch stream. Their Twitch channel had over 200 subscribers and an average of 500 daily viewers.

That night, before Matt sat down next to Mari to begin streaming, he slipped a black box into his pocket.

They started off the stream normally enough, until Mari went inside the in-game village house to see a sign on the screen.

"Will you…" she moved her face closer to the screen to see better, squinting. "...marry me?"

She looked down to see Matt kneeling in front of her, holding up a black box with a ring.

Mari's hands moved to her mouth as she let out a happy sob. "Matt…"

"Mari, the past two years have been my best yet, but I know that this is the only way to make the rest of my life better. As cliche as it sounds, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Mari sat there for a second, hands still covering her mouth, happy tears running down her face. She removed her hands to reveal a grin from ear to ear. "Get up here."

Matt straightened up to her height, and she pulled him closer, and whispered,

"Yes."

They kissed, their hands wrapping around each other tightly, saying, _they are mine, forever, they will always be mine._

The chat was going absolutely nuts.

 _ **-ten years later-**_

 __"Matt! Matt! Matt, where the he-" Mari was cut off by the sounds of two children giggling and a ' _shh!_ '

 _Two can play at this game._

"Alright, I guess if you guys won't come out, you won't get dinner tonight." No noises. "Or dessert."

"But daddy-"

"Shh! She's bluffing."

Mari's head turned toward the quiet voices she heard. She walked toward them until she was a few feet away from the small child-sized room by the kitchen.

"And I guess you won't be getting any TV time, either." At that, the door slammed open and two children walked out, on the verge of tears.

"Mommy please-"

"We were just joking-"

"Yeah and it was daddy's idea-"

Mari held out her hand, shushing the children. "Matt? Is this true?"

Matt crawled out of the child's playroom, a fake guilty face on. "Yes."

"Well, then. I guess you won't be getting any dessert." Mari tried to walk away, but Matt grabbed her and squeezed her,

"Run, kids, run!" Matt yelled, and the children scrambled upstairs, shrieking and laughing. Once he heard the door upstairs close, he released Mari. "Hey."

"Hey." Mari turned and kissed him, then pulled away after a few seconds.

"You wanna stream tonight?"

"Of course."

 **Aaaaaand that's it! :D**

 **I'm glad you all liked this story, I had a ton of fun writing it!**

 **I'm gonna go, it's late, but look out for my next story!**

 **(also happy thanksgiving for anyone celebrating!)**


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